Exploring climate change criteria for strategic environmental assessments

Climate change has become a high priority worldwide at the level of governments, business, and community due to growing understanding of climate change's implications for trade, security, the economy, ecosystems, and the well-being of humans and other species. The strategic environmental assessment (SEA) process is well-positioned to systematically help strengthen treatment of climate change adaptation and mitigation in planning and development. This is due to its practical, analytical component, its participation component, and its ability to engage with ethical issues and reconcile competing agendas. This monograph explores criteria and good practices in addressing various climate change aspects in SEA and country environmental analysis (CEA). Climate change criteria are developed and applied to two datasets to provide an initial information baseline on climate change treatment in SEA and CEA, amended sets of climate change criteria for each, and an evidence-based resource for improving SEA and CEA guidance and practice amongst interested academics, professionals, and practitioners in the UK, EU, development banks, and developing countries. Overall findings are relevant to any individual, institution, or country interested in addressing climate change and climate-related natural hazards within an SEA or planning framework.

► Strategic environmental assessment is well positioned to help more systematically address climate change issues in planning and development.
► Criteria derived from guidance documents or practice can be used to evaluate the extent of climate change coverage in subsets of SEAs, SAs, and CEAs.
► Such climate change criteria can help in raising standards, identifying comparatively better practices, and tracking changes over time.
► Climate change criteria can be of benefit in both developed and developing countries.
► Due to emerging standards of practice on climate change in certain SAs and CEAs, some revision of associated guidance documents may be warranted.